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COPYRIGHT 2004 Blackwell Publishers Ltd.
THE GAME OF ICON-BASHING, THOUGH ALWAYS WITH US, HAS BECOME easier to play than ever. Yes, it's true that the political leaders of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries lack the stature of their earlier counterparts. But even though they do, haven't they also faced closer, more wicked scrutiny? The spate of books on JFK in the past two decades has changed public opinion in a way that would have been laughed at 35 years ago. Today, JFK's immediate predecessor in the White House, Dwight Eisenhower, enjoys greater public favor not only over him but also over both his Camelot cronies and his successor, Lyndon Johnson. Nor is JFK the only president since 1960 whose image has tarnished. Presidents Ford, Carter, and George H. W. Bush all lost in their bids at re-election. Nixon's triumphs in foreign policy, which peaked in his visit to China, have drowned in the Watergate scandal that pushed him out of Washington. More...
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